“ Vile, McCombs, and Granduciel are all part of a traditional songwriters’ lineage. It’s easy to hear varying degrees of Dylan, Cohen, Springsteen, (early) R.E.M., and (early) Elliott Smith, among others, in their songs. But the new wrinkle for this group of contemporary songwriters is that they seem to reflexively put the listener at arm’s length—obscuring songs through production techniques, drowsy vocals, obtuse (post-Stipe?) lyrics. We’ve moved past the protests of the 60s (Dylan, Ochs), the blown-up drama of the 70s (John, Joel), the middle-class solidarity of the 80s (Springsteen, Mellencamp), the disillusionment and personal struggles of the 90s (Cobain, Smith), into the Age of Terror and information overload of the new century, where a popular response to The Way We Live Now is introversion, or at best an avoidance of speaking for anyone but oneself.”
pretty goes with pretty
aka scott tennent
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buy the 33 1/3 spiderland bookblogging about tennis at unforced error
ask me questions
buy the 33 1/3 spiderland bookblogging about tennis at unforced error
January 17, 2012
